A special millinery make for Easter & a workshop!

It's time I gave you something pretty to make - just in time for Easter. And no, I'm not talking about an Easter bonnet....they're sooooo two centuries ago! Instead I give you the Spring flower hairpin which you can create in abundance and scatter through your hair however you choose. These flowers are crafted using a vintage technique that I discovered when I purchased a 1930's satin nightdress-case a few years back. The flowers had been worked in pale pink ribbon, but I prefer something more vivid and real looking, so this is my modern take on the technique. I hope you like it. Please share your pics on my Chic on a Shoestring Book Facebook page. I'd love to see the flowers you come up with.

You'll need. Cotton organdie fabric (I get mine from The Cloth House on Berwick Street in London) - 25cm will make lots of flowers. Scissors, needle and thread, felt-tip pins, hairpins, a scrap of felt, and a gluegun. A small paintbrush and some water.

Cut your organdie into strips around 40cm long and 5cm wide. Then fold in half along the length. Use the felt-tip pens to add colour along once side and blend using some water and the paintbrush. Allow to dry.

Use a double thread with a knot on the end and stitch as shown along the raw edge for about 6/7cm then gather up the thread to make a petal. Repeat the process to make a second petal.

Continue all the way along the strip until you have made several petals just like the strip below. Don't worry about it curling up. It will naturally do that.

Arrange the petals in a circle as shown stitching through the centre to hold in place.

Make a little loop of thread and form into a figure of eight as shown.

Stitch into the centre of your flower and chop through the ends of the two loops. This creates stamens. You can scrunch the flower in your hand to give it more of a textured finish. The organdie will hold the shape well.

Use the glue gun to stick each flower to a hairpin and cover with a tiny circle of felt on the back.

Pop in your hair and celebrate the Spring! 

If you'd like to learn lots more about this method and create a unique floral millinery headpiece using other vintage techniques, then sign up for my workshop taking place on Saturday 2nd April at my friends' beautiful Scottish wildflower farm - Scotia Seeds in Farnell (near Montrose in Angus). It costs £55 for the day all in, and there will be homemade soup for lunch and endless tea and coffee! 

For further details please email me: maryjanemillinery@hotmail.co.uk - it would be lovely to see you there. 

XX

Mollie Makes Extra

A  big thankyou to the team at Mollie Makes magazine for the lovely feature about my Mobile Makery which was published on 4th February in issue 63. Hurrah! As a huge Mollie Makes fan, it's a real privilege to be in the mag itself. Also a round of applause and a shout out for Caro Weiss who took all the lovely photographs. If you're getting married this year, then do check out her website. She does AMAZING wedding photography too. Also thanks to Fiona Guest and Giles Laverack for letting us use their beautiful Scotia Seeds farm as a location. They are the UK's premier producer of native Scottish wildflower seeds and do incredible work ensuring the continuation of these species. I hope you enjoyed the magazine feature. Here are a few extra photos to give you another peek at my upcyled Mobile Makery - aka Bambi!

Remember you can book Bambi for your own events or book me to run a workshop for you and your friends in Bambi.

Contact: maryjanemillinery@hotmail.co.uk

xx

Immersed in making in my Scottish hideway

Since I began my Scottish sojourn (let's call it my maker's retreat) I've been busy coming up with ideas and projects for my new book Vintage Vacation based on my travels in the Mobile Makery. It sounds idyllic I know - far away from the madding crowd - cutting, sticking and stitching. I  realise you won't believe me but it does have its drawbacks! It's chilly and a bit lonesome and I'm not quite sure how long I can afford the luxury of not earning day-to-day. I'm lucky in that I have a very kind brother letting me stay with him for a while. But, I need to sort out the cash flow - fast! 

My 5am starts for shifts on the foreign desk at the BBC in London seem a long time ago already, but I miss my friends and colleagues enormously. The day-to-day dramas, deadlines and banter do give you an energy and focus that you can lack when you're working on your own with no reason to hurry. It's all too easy to become disconnected from what's going on in the world. For instance,  I've not been listening to the Today programme at all. Shock Horror! It used to be my regular wake-up call but now I switch it off if my brother puts it on. I've come to realise that being hit with bad news on a global scale every morning isn't necessarily the way to stay upbeat and positive! I'm not saying you should cut yourself off entirely, but pick and choose your moments, curate your listening, viewing and reading. Too much information can be a bad thing.

But onto more creative matters....!

Here below is a sneak preview of some of the makes I've been working on. I'm using largely recycled materials to create a host of projects that I hope will please both stylish nomads and home-loving hoarders!

Anyway - time for lunch so I must be off! Food is always a deadline worth sticking to ! x

Vintage hats for ladies who lunch!

These little cocktail hats are perfect for wearing with victory rolls!

I was recently invited to Eindhoven in the Netherlands to run a workshop in a vintage ribbon-pleating technique. I had a fantastic time and was offered such generous hospitality. The trip came about as a result of my Mobile Makery Tour of Europe in the summer. You may remember that I took part in a hat festival in Caussade in France (see earlier entry)  - and it was there that I met my Dutch millinery friends. They were keen to learn some of the methods I outline in my book The Modern Girl's Guide to Hatmaking - and this resulted in my trip to Eindhoven. Whilst there, I came across a fantastic supplier of vintage millinery materials. I bought some gorgeous strip straw and decided to use it to cover one of my handmade wire frames. 

I make the frames by hand, using very strong millinery wire - the idea is to form similar shapes to the small perching hats that were so popular in the 1950's, but without using a block. I then bind the wire with tulle and stitch a tulle cover on top, stretching the tulle so it's nice and taut. Once the tulle cover is in place, you can trim it it with whatever you wish.

The first task is to bind the outer edge of the frame. I find that softening the straw with hot water really helps as it needs to be very malleable to do this. Once the edge is covered you can then sew the strip in one continuous piece to the rest of the base - taking care to hide your stitches in the straw so they're not visible on the right side of the hat.

The technique is very satisfying and makes a really light hat that can be trimmed in many ways. Use steam to lightly block the shape once finished. The trick lies in constructing a good initial base that will 'self-grip' to the head. Perfect to wear with complicated hairstyles like victory rolls!

Dorothee L'a Fait

"Even tiny objects can be interesting, sensual and rich," says Dorothee

I first got to know Dorothee when I worked as a reporter for the BBC in Brussels over ten years ago. Dorothee had a part-time job at an enticing little shop full of tastefully curated vintage finds and curios near the square in Ixelles where I lived.  One day I went in wearing a '50's dress handed down to me by my Aunt. The dress is gorgeous. Black and white, it has a little Peter Pan collar and is covered in writing (although interestingly none of the words make sense). Dorothee remarked on my outfit and just like that, we became friends. She was my only non-BBC acquaintance in Brussels, and as a costume designer and artist, her world fascinated me. Moreover, she was an inspirational and lovely person.

Dorothee grew up in a bohemian household in Paris. It was perfectly normal for her parents to hold colour-themed soirees and even dinners were cooked according to shade and tone. It's hardly surprising then that colour is Dorothee's passion. One of her recent projects has been to create a series of silk flower corsages all hand dyed and sewn. The flowers are completely unique and many have been made with a specific person in mind using colours that complement them. Each flower is numbered and named after the person who owns it. You can see my beautiful specimen here below.

Here you can see some of the pretty headpieces from Dorothee's new collection. She has become fascinated by millinery and her hats are a wonderful showcase for the handmade flowers she loves to create. 

Dorothee's atelier is full of intriguing objects. Her training in costume design means she has a keen eye for unusual detail and I just love the way she groups things together. A visit to her flat is such a treat - a feast for all the senses!

Dorothee's latest collection features beautiful bridal pieces. Delicate and fragile in appearance each one is made carefully by hand and they seem somehow to spread a little magic.  I love the way that Dorothee sees her work. "Hats can transform a person and reveal hidden things about them," she says. I couldn't agree more!

Beautiful single flowers below made for a special day - each one formed by hand.

Find out more about Dorothee's work by looking at her website - just click on the link.

A visit to Legeron - Paris

Whilst studying millinery professionally some 12 years ago now, I visited Paris and the house of Legeron which is renowned for its handmade flowers. The atelier first opened in 1727 and was taken over by the current owner's Great Grandfather in 1880. The business has remained in the same family ever since. Bruce Legeron (pictured above) is now at the  artistic helm of the business.  Famous couture houses such as Dior, Givenchy, and Dries Van Noten adorn their collections with the gorgeous blooms created here.

I had such vivid memories of my first visit to Legeron that I was determined to go there again during my Mobile Makery tour and what's more, this time, I wanted to see behind-the-scenes. I had another special reason for learning more as my Belgian friend Dorothée had recently acquired an incredible flower-making press and all the accompanying tools from a milliner in Brussels who'd sadly decided to sell up. Dorothée wanted to find out as much as she could about the art and craft of couture flower-making, and so we decided to go to Legeron together.

The atelier itself occupies two floors of an incredibly romantic old building. Go up the wooden stairs which smell of melted wax and ring the bell. You're led into a room full of hand-made flowers tucked away inside dozens of small drawers lining the walls. The flowers are created from every conceivable material - cotton, silk, plastic, rubber, leather - and come in every shade of every colour. Dorothée and I had made an appointment so that we could meet the famous Monsieur Legeron ourselves but to our disappointment he wasn't there. Our 'behind-the-scenes' visit was looking unlikely until the company's website designer (the son of one of the women who make the flowers!) gallantly stepped into the breach and offered to show us around. 

First we saw fabric stretched out on wooden frames ready to be stiffened with (mostly) gelatine. Then we were shown how the petals are stamped out (there are hundreds of different shapes) ready to be individually dyed.

It's Mr Legeron himself who hand-dyes the petals. His tiny workshop is at the heart of the atelier and it has more than a touch of magic about it. Tints of different shades are created and then painted onto each petal. As you can see from the picture below, every flower has a unique top-secret 'recipe' to determine its finished appearance. Shhh.......don't tell a soul! The petals are left to dry slowly overnight.

Next, the petals go to the workroom where a small expert team assembles each flower using a variety of heated metal tools to coax the flat forms into life. It takes about 10 years to become fully apprenticed. The longest-serving member of staff has been at Legeron for 40 years. In a world where skill has been replaced by speed it's a reminder that true quality doesn't come cheap.

Leather 'fabric' adorned with 3D flowers.

My friend Dorothée proudly modelling a Legeron silk bloom.

Already entranced by our mini tour of Legeron, Dorothée and I were in for another treat. Our guide went and rummaged around in a back room and came back with a large ledger. Inside were original sketches for hats dating back to the 1950's detailing the trims with which they were to be adorned. Take a peek for yourselves here below!

It's enough to get a girl hatting again!